Blawgletter once heard that some people believe they have a constitutional right to buy knock-off handbags. Now we learn that they just about had it right. The Copyright Act of 1976, according to The Los Angeles Times today, doesn’t protect designer-label designs, only artwork; and we suppose that trademark law covers the labels themselves.
A bill pending in the Senate — the Design Piracy Prohibition Act — would, you know, prohibit design piracy.
We predict a slow, agonizing, and possibly brutal death for the DPPA bill, not least because we agree with the guy who said:
I love the bill theoretically, but I don’t think it will ever work. I think it’s next to impossible to enforce any of this. Some of the biggest designers would be in court every other week for knocking off other people.
Barry Barnett
